The World Was Warm

‘We have plenty of time.’ Remembering the dry vine that had been fashioned into a ring on my finger.

Death is the contract that everyone has to sign when they’re born. It was only when I died did I know what that meant for me. 

I never signed that contract. 

And neither did she. 

As buildings crumbled around me and the heat of the sun’s flames made me sweat, the only person I saw was her. I remember she wore brown scrubs and short brown hair, I hadn’t noticed it when I first grabbed her wrist and began to pull her away from the fragments of glass that exploded from the window. 

I remember shaking her and yelling at her, but she wouldn’t move so I had to drag her, running into a direction—Any direction—until my legs grew sore and they crumbled onto themselves. I couldn’t move anymore and I couldn’t pull her anymore. My legs felt numb, I felt my vision cloud up and my face was wet. 

I remember sobbing my heart out until I was throwing up my lungs, I felt hot. I didn’t notice her arms around me, holding me. 

“Hey, hey, hey, you’re okay. We’re going to be okay. Just breathe in and then out.” Her whispers were rushed and shuttered that it felt like she wasn’t saying it to me, but I still breathed in time with her, I felt the dry grass beneath my knees, and the coldness of her scrubs.  

We stayed like that for a long time. It was my idea to start building shelter from the scoldering heat. 

“Do you think we’re the only ones here?” She spoke raspy, her lips dry. 

“On Earth?” I replied

“Yeah…” 

“I think so.”

…

 She curled up on herself, and I grabbed a piece of her shirt hesitantly and her eyes peeked through the bangs that were glued to her forehead. 

“Maybe we can go to the ocean, the beach couldn’t be too far.” I slurred out, I was never good with comforting people. I was an accountant, and when everything was normal, I spent days at a time without a word. 

She didn’t say anything. “Maybe we’ll be able to find a boat or a radio. I could be wrong. There could be more people.”

She didn’t say anything, I assumed that she went to sleep and I did too. We slept far from each other, the warmth separating us.

 We had begun walking the next day. The day was filled with silence, but then I heard shuffling and looked back. “You oka—”

“Look what I found.” Her smile was the widest I’ll ever seen, and in her hand was a candy bar. I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at how happy she was. 

“A candy bar? How long has that been there? It has to be expired now.” 

“That’s where you’re wrong, look it’s going to expire next year!” She shoved the bar in my face, but when I looked closer the expiry date was smudged. “Do you want a bite?” I sighed and grabbed it from her hand to open it, but she pulled it away from my grasp. 

“Nope! We should wait until we reach the beach. Let it be a celebratory snack once we find the edge of the Earth.” 

———————

The trees' roots erupted from the cracked ground, and the sky was red, filled with smog. While the forest’s trees were completely bare, they gave some sort of shade away from the sun. Giving us a chance to sleep during the day and then begin walking again at night. I had ditched my suit jacket by that time and used it as a way to give myself some sort of shade.    

“What were you doing when the world ended?” She asked me one day, looking up into the forest canopy. 

“Huh?”

“That’s what everybody asks when a tragedy strikes. World War 1, World War 2, 9/11, this. So what were you doing?” 

“Nothing really.”

“Well, I was going to go visit my mother… She was in the apartment.” 

…

She didn’t continue and I didn’t push. 

“I was in the office, the place crumbled down, but I was able to survive. Somehow.”

“You sound almost like you didn’t want to survive it.”

“I… I don’t know, it just seemed like there were more people that deserved to survive than me.” I never thought of it at the time, but I think at the moment the reason why I waited for so long for a response was because I wanted her to comfort me like when we first met. Maybe that’s what she had wanted when she told me about her mother. 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything…” There was a short lapse in silence, as I brought up the courage to continue.  

“It’s-It’s...um… it’s okay. I never really spoke to anybody there.”

 “But, they were still there.”

“Yeah… They were there.” I couldn’t continue, my throat was closing up and she didn’t push. 

We approached a steep stony hill, and began walking up it. She was able to walk higher than me, her running shoes gripping onto the stones, while my dress shoes slid down.

She grabbed my hand by the forearm and tried to pull me up to the landing on the top. The sweat between our hands made it slippery, so I hastily ripped off my shoes, tossing it onto the landing and grabbed her with my other hand. Feeling the sharp rocks jab into my terribly calloused feet. 

She was able to pull me to the top, but we didn’t feel like getting up from that spot. It felt like the roots had latched on our limbs, planting us to the spot. Our hands interlocked and our breathing synchronized with the booming sound of my heart beat.

———————

Eventually, the smoldering heat lightened it’s weight on our shoulders’ when we eventually found a cave while the sun began to rise outside. While we stayed away from the rays, a random thought occurred in my mind. 

“The grass at home must be so dry… I used to water them for one hour a day.” I croaked, when the world was colder, I had spent most of my water bill on making sure my grass was green and the flowers were blooming. 

“Do you regret watering your lawn all the time?” Her head was resting on my shoulder as she stared at the nutrient facts on the back of the candy bar. I paused and then leaned my head on the top of her head. 

“Hmmm, I don’t think so…. I always knew they were going to die. I never had a green thumb.”

“Me either… My neighbour would gift me gorgeous poinsettias every Christmas… They never last New Year's Eve.” She made it sound like she committed a first degree murder and she was boasting it to the other inmates. “That’s kind of worrying for a nurse.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not then.” She chuckled, she pushed herself to lie on my lap and played with a piece of vine that was hanging from the walls of the cave, the candy bar peeking out of her shirt pocket. “Then what were you then?” 

She paused for a long time, I almost thought she didn’t hear me, but then she whispered it softly like it was a secret. 

“I was a researcher.” 

“Wow, I was way off… What were you doing? Working for area 51?”

“Oil reserves.” She looked up to me and I looked down at her. I didn’t know what she had wanted me to say, so all I said was a high-pitched, “Oh.”

“Oh?” Her voice tightened up, her eye contact scattered around my face. I couldn’t tell what she was looking for.  

“Well, what do you want me to say? Being a researcher is a really good career, there’s no reason to be ashamed of—” 

“Because I had a part in making the world end.” She had spouted it out of nowhere, and it was such a strange conclusion to come to. “You—You think you caused the world to end because you did research for an oil company?” 

“Yes! I contributed to the increase of carbon dioxide and now the world has ended and for some reason I survived and it was my fault.” She covered her face in her hands as she sighed heavily in her palms. It made me laugh a bit, and I covered her hands with mine. 

“Why are you laughing?” Her voice was muffled with my hands weighing her’s down. “I used to put gas in my car, I used to take long showers on the weekends, sometimes I would even take a bath.” I looked up to the cave ceiling looking at all the abandoned spider webs. 

“We all knew the world was always going to go with a quiet scream. Doesn’t matter if we contributed to the explosion or not.” The conversation died there, either because she didn’t have the energy to argue or maybe I didn’t hear what she said before the heat overtook me and I fell asleep. 

———————

It was dark when we started walking again, my feet felt the prick of the tall, dry, grass between my toes, before I placed my dress shoes back on my feet. I had abandoned my jacket in the cave, the feeling of it only made me feel hotter than ever before. 

“I can’t wait to have that candy bar.” I told her as we made it out of the cave. 

“I know, it’s going to be the most delicious thing I’ll ever have in my life. I don’t care if it’s melted or whatever, I’m going to have it.” She laughed, the loudest I’ll ever hear her. 

We started climbing this steep hill, and she latched her finger onto mine as she led me up. 

“Hey.” She said to me, and now that I think about it, I never got to tell her my name. Did I?

“Hey.” I responded back. 

“I disagree with what you said… you know… in the cave.” She didn’t look back at me as the hill grew steeper.

“What do you mean?” 

“When you said it doesn’t matter whether we contributed to the end of the world or not… I disagree with it.” The hill grew a bit rocker as we almost reached the very top. I gripped hard onto her one finger.  

“I think… I think I would’ve rather gone out fighting for as long as I could then just give up. The world is so beautiful, it’s too bad I just noticed it now.” And then she slipped something on my finger. 

I looked up to see what it was. It was a piece of a vine from the cave, tied around my finger. I had let go of her finger and smiled, leaning back to look at it with the sun surrounding the circle. It looked like a halo. 

And then I slipped.   

———————

I can’t open my eyes.

I can’t move my legs.

I can’t feel the grass on my feet, or the ring in my hands.

Am I dead?

No, I can feel my heartbeat.

It’s dark. 

I wonder if we were close to the ocean. 

I wonder if she’s there. 

I hear something, it sounds like the rippling waves of the ocean. It sounds just as wonderful as I imagine it. 

It sounds like someone saying “sshhhhh” as the waves roll in and out on what I imagine is a sandy beach, but I could feel the wind on my face for the first time in days. 

My face feels wet.  

I hear her sobbing.

The world was so warm. 

But…

We were never going to make it.